Welcome to Leafy Green Planet, a blog about sustainable living in a petroleum-based society.

Look around for a moment. Like me, you’re probably surrounded by plastic right now. I’m typing this on a plastic keyboard on my laptop computer. My plastic cell phone sits within reach. I make coffee in a plastic espresso machine, pour milk from a plastic bottle, and get into my plastic hybrid gas/electric car to drive to work, fueled by petroleum. We live in a fossil energy world, and petrochemicals are in almost everything around us, from the moment we wake up in the morning until we fall asleep at night. How can we avoid buying food with petrochemical additives, furniture treated with chemicals, cleaning products filled with harmful ingredients and plastic toys that expose our children to toxins when the very chemicals needed to make almost everything we use on a daily basis come from fossil fuels? Which plastics are “safe”? How can I find out if a product is really non-toxic? Where do I find healthy alternatives and which brands can I trust? Join me in learning about ways to make your life healthier for you, your family and your environment.

Here you’ll find news, ideas and resources for sustainable living. I welcome questions from readers about all things green, so feel free to send me a message. If you’re starting a product-based business, I can help you find biobased, renewable, recycled, recyclable and biodegradable materials to replace the petrochemicals and lower the carbon footprint of your products and packaging, so they’re safer for consumers and better for the environment. Let’s make using petrochemicals for new plastics a thing of the past. Using recycled plastics and plant-based plastics to make new products makes sense, as oil becomes exceedingly scarce and more costly produce. The biobased revolution has begun. Yes, we are living in its early stages, but it is the future. Say goodbye to fossil fuels, hello to a greener, healthier world. And the sooner, the better!